NVIDIA's plans for 2H 2004 and 1H 2005

Here are some rumours about upcoming graphics chips from NVIDIA in the second half of this year and the first half of 2005.

According to slides found at Myhard.com NVIDIA is expected to release the NV48, NV48e, NV43 and NV44 in the second half of this year. All of these are based on the recently announced GeForce 6800-series and have the same capabilities, including DirectX 9.0 and Shader Model 3.0 support.

The code-named NV48 graphics chips will succeed the NV45 and NV40 graphics processors known as the GeForce 6800-series in the high-end market. The NV48 will be designed to work with AGP 8x bus, while the NV48e will be intended for PCI Express x16 lane. The code-named NV43 and NV44 GPUs will exist in AGP 8x and PCI Express x16 iterations and will serve mainstream and entry-level markets of graphics cards.

Precise specifications of the new parts are not reported. Typically lower end offerings feature less pixel and vertex pipelines and have generally cut-down architecture compared to the more expensive parts. Today’s high-performance graphics processing units feature 16 and 12 pixel as well as 6 vertex pipelines. Less powerful options may have 8 or 4 pixel pipelines along with 6 or fewer vertex pipes.

All the new chips are to be introduced this year. According to the report, they will gradually outspace the GeForce FX and GeForce PCX series from the market and will serve the market in the first half of 2005.